'Palestinians by blood but Syrians at heart': Residents of Yarmouk refugee camp dream of revival
The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus was devastated by the Syrian civil war. The scene of violent clashes between Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel militias, including the Islamic State (IS) group, little remains of a once-thriving area but ruins and desolation. Yet a number of its inhabitants have chosen to return, hoping to rebuild their “little Palestine”.
It's an apocalyptic landscape, with ruined shells of buildings almost as far as the eye can see. Facades that are somehow still standing are riddled with bullets. The Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, in the southern suburbs of Damascus, bears the scars of 13 years of brutal war in Syria. With the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the remaining inhabitants of the camp dream of seeing their “little Palestine” reborn.
“In 1957, UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) distributed land so that the Palestinians could build housing,” says Fahmi al-Mouhab, whose parents fled Galilee in 1948 during what he calls the Nakba, or catastrophe, the forced Palestinian exodus following the creation of the state of Israel.
“People lived in tents. There was nothing. No water or electricity,” he says.
Years of suffering under Assad
Mouhab is at times interrupted by his family members, who don't let him finish his sentences, but he remains unperturbed.
Fahmi takes the opportunity to slip away for a smoke in the alcove.
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